The security or lack thereof of the Android platform - real or imagined - is a common topic of conversation at the moment so it seems like a good time to take a look for a comprehensive security app. My preferred choice is Avast!.
Avast! for Android is free and carries no advertising, making it perfect for anyone who is just a …

They have been producing free PC anti-virus programs for years. There are pay versions of the PC software for additional features. I assume they will be taking the same approach for Android and the likes.

business model

business model is simple enough, give away AV software for free to home users, sell AV for business use or sell for home use with added features. The Android app helps create awareness of the brand hopefully converting those mobile users into paying desktop users.

The big problem I see for Avast is that Microsoft now have a very decent AV program that's free for home users and small businesses and doesn't aim to induce coronary arrest every time the definitions are updated.

Larger businesses are going to use something like Sophos that has decent management capabilities.

"induce coronary arrest every time the definitions are updated"

antivirus test?!

me thinks you forgot something, i.e. how good / bad it is in detecting viral infections. It's no use waffling about what it claims to be able to do, without showing any results on how well it does it. Say, how effective it is in threat detection, in comparison with x number of similar products.

Spotted something

It has potentially unwanted program detection and it spotted something from android market which can be used both by white and black hats.

Deny usb debugging and deny root from internet access does a lot more in current scene. That is the part the google idiot mentioned every time when they talk about security misses.

Note that the app it does detect is on android market, it can be used for good (watch your kid) but it can also be used horribly wrong. That is way beyond google market design to cope with.

anyway,I gave up my paid antivirus which still have subscription for this since it is way more better written by people who actually cares. Mr Kaspersky should get rid of entire android app developers, not the detectors.

I've been using this since the beta and it's improved greatly. Very little resources hit, very stable, the firewall and anti-theft for rooted phones are nice features. Downsides are that the callblocker doesn't catch calls before the phones vibration kick in (on my handset at least). I was really surprised when it came out of beta and was still free.

Three thumbs up

This is a fantastic app.

If you lose your phone (or have it stolen) you can also locate it remotely by sending a text to it from someone else's phone. You send your Avast pin with the word "locate" and you get a text message back saying exactly where the phone is.

The amount of functionality on this thing is amazing considering it's free.

That said, I installed it, played with it for half an hour and haven't gone back to it since (which is probably the way it should be with a security app).

Looking at the resolution of the screengrabs in this article and comparing them with screengrabs in other reviews - including iPhone apps where the resolution of the original screengrabs definitely shouldn't be anything other than a couple of combinations - and then considering the way the Register articles are laid out with their rather narrow central column for all the article content, leads me to conclude that the screengrabs in this and other app reviews have been rescaled so that two can fit side by side in the central column, and aren't therefore entirely representative of the actual information displayed in the app itself...

Shame really, I'd prefer to see the articles illustrated with 1:1 scale screengrabs even if it means having to scroll a bit more down each page - or if the Reg design gurus absolutely insist on having side by side screengrabs like this and won't consider widening the central column just enough to fit two 1:1 grabs side by side, then at least make them clickable to open up the 1:1 scale originals.

Well...

Excellent as always

As a very long time Avast user on Windows I installed the Android version as soon as it became available. So far I have't been disapointed, it does everything I expect from Avast without making any performance impact.

My only issue is the permanent Avast icon in the notification area. I don't see it in the article's screenshots, is there a way to remove it?

Remember last November's Android AV Test

Anti-Theft

Well looks good but I can't get the Anti-Theft stuff installed on my rooted Galaxy S. Googling it seems to suggest I need to remove some stuff from the system partition. Guess I'll be trying that tonight, after making a backup of course :-)

Seems to be a great app anyway and the firewall is handy to stop my kids 'borrowing' my phone to watch videos on the 3G connection rather than Wifi :-)

Uninstall?

This may sound like a strange question but can it be uninstalled? I installed it on my HTC Desire when the app was in beta and you couldn't remove it - the Avast forums were full of people asking the same question too. The only way I could remove it was to reinstall Android from scratch using a RUU, and this kind of put me off it as a result.